Instead of focusing on the ecological disaster unfolding on the Bóbr River, the leadership of the Ministry of Climate and Environment traveled to the Bieszczady Mountains to announce the launch of a new bear management task force. Today, the predator response teams are expected to receive off-road vehicles. Meanwhile, the government is allegedly preparing to establish the Turnicki National Park “through the back door.” The ministry has announced plans to create a 6,000-hectare nature reserve within the Bircza Forest District.
What Is Next for Poland’s Forests?
The Ministry of Climate and Environment’s plans were revealed by Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) MP Bartosz Romowicz, the former mayor of Ustrzyki Dolne.
“Today in Bircza, Paulina Hennig-Kloska proposed that the local government approve a 6,000-hectare nature reserve – exactly the size the planned national park would have. They cannot establish a national park without the local government’s consent, but they can create a nature reserve without it. They want to bypass the law, which only reinforces my conviction that my bill is necessary,” MP Romowicz wrote.
For years, the establishment of Turnicki National Park has been one of the flagship demands of environmental activists.
An Idea With a Long History
The proposal is far from new. According to promotional materials published by environmental activists, plans for Turnicki National Park date back to the period before World War II.
One of the project’s leading advocates was distinguished entomologist Tadeusz Trella. His reasoning, presented in the 1930s, remains noteworthy.
“From the end of the World War until recent years, profound changes have taken place in the Turnica region. The finest forest stands have fallen to the axes of loggers. Vast clear-cut areas and young forests – largely planted with species foreign to Turnica, such as spruce, pine, larch, oak and elm – have replaced the original high forests. The primeval Carpathian forest in its natural form has survived only in a handful of locations. Protecting what remains of this ancient forest in the form of a nature reserve, at least in one of its most characteristic areas, is made easier by the fact that this territory, covering approximately 25 square kilometers, is largely state-owned, while the remaining northeastern section belongs to the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences,” Trella wrote in the journal Nature Conservation.
This suggests that, in Trella’s assessment 80 years ago, much of the area now proposed for national park status had already been significantly altered and degraded. He estimated that only around 25 square kilometers – or 2,500 hectares – of genuinely valuable forest remained worth protecting.
Today, after eight decades of forest management, environmental activists are calling for a national park covering between 17,000 and 19,000 hectares. The Ministry of Climate and Environment’s latest proposal envisions a 6,000-hectare reserve – more than twice the area Trella considered worthy of protection before World War II.
For activists, the reserve has become a fallback option after they recently began openly criticizing the Ministry of Climate and Environment for what they describe as its lack of effectiveness and slow pace in removing forests from commercial forestry.
A National Park Without Purpose?
The scale of the proposed reserve becomes clearer when compared with recent conservation efforts. Since October 2023, approximately 134 new nature reserves have been established across Poland, covering a combined area of just over 14,000 hectares. That means the average reserve covers around 106 hectares – roughly 60 times smaller than the new reserve announced by the Ministry of Climate and Environment.
A PLN 19 Million Public Relations Project?
During its visit to the Bieszczady Mountains, the Ministry of Climate and Environment also officially launched its bear management task force. The issue has become increasingly urgent, as local governments have for years called for the culling of bears approaching residential areas.
Although the task force was announced several months ago, it is only now expected to begin operating after nearly six months spent purchasing off-road vehicles.
According to Poland’s General Directorate for Environmental Protection:
“The increasingly frequent appearance of brown bears near residential areas, damage to farms and apiaries, and the growing number of interventions involving these predators demonstrate the need for coordinated action. The project, worth more than PLN 19 million and co-financed by the European Union under the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate and Environment 2021-2027 program, provides a comprehensive approach to the problem. Its objective is to establish a system capable of more effectively preventing conflicts involving bears while maintaining a high level of protection for one of Poland’s most valuable wildlife species.”
Rubber Bullets Against Bears
The plan includes fitting bears with GPS tracking collars to monitor their movements. If an animal approaches residential areas, intervention teams are expected to drive it away using rubber bullets and noise-making weapons.
Officials claim this approach has worked in the Tatra Mountains. However, doubts remain over whether it can be successfully implemented in the Bieszczady Mountains. Critics have already pointed to potential shortcomings, arguing that intervention teams may respond too slowly and that rubber bullets may prove ineffective.
As recently as last year, local governments requested permission to cull five bears. The General Directorate for Environmental Protection initially granted the permit but later revoked it following pressure from environmental activists and some politicians from the governing coalition.
The creation of the task force has been presented by the government as a breakthrough. Critics, however, argue that any assessment should be postponed until next spring, when conflicts between bears and humans most commonly occur as the animals emerge from hibernation. Earlier this year, one such encounter resulted in a fatal bear attack.